Only 12 full scheduled days remain in the 2008 session of your General Assembly, and as usual this time of year, the workload is picking up dramatically. Several significant pieces of legislation moved in the House this week including a bill restricting illegal immigration, a new state budget, and two bills regarding alcohol use.
For the sixth time in two years, the House has approved an illegal immigration bill. The latest bill requires all employers to use the federal e-verify system or a valid S.C. drivers’ license to check the legal status of their employees. We eliminated a proposal that would create a new state I-9 form and a new bureaucracy with an as-yet unknown number of new state employees.
Employers who have tried the federal e-verify system have found that the system is free, quick, and simple to use, and the requirements for our state’s drivers’ licenses are among the toughest in the nation. While the Senate has thus far disagreed with using the e-verify system that the House and Governor have embraced, the bill takes a number of important steps to protect the rights of all workers, whether they are citizens, or immigrants who choose to follow the law and come here legally: It creates a felony for creating false documents; it bans illegal immigrants from attending public colleges and winning taxpayer- funded scholarships; it makes it a felony to transport or harbor illegal workers, though it provides reasonable exceptions for some charities, such as homeless shelters, which could get caught unexpectedly; the legislation allows fired workers to sue their former employers if they’re replaced by illegal workers within two months.
The immigration bill now goes back to the Senate for the third time this year.
The House also held a second budget writing week. The budget is written on what amounts to a best guess basis of revenue that will be available in the coming year. The state Board of Economic Advisors informs the general assembly of how the economy is doing and what can be expected. After the House wrote its initial budget and it was sent to the Senate, the BEA reduced its 08-09 estimate by about $120 million – so additional cuts were in order.
Fortunately, most agencies have carry-forward accounts or, in my opinion, bloated budgets where some cuts can be absorbed. Also, many local projects that should not be funded by state dollars were targeted for elimination or reduction. What ended up happening is that for the first time in a while there were very few personal pet projects and the reductions were based far more on merit and available money than influence.
However, a number of worthy programs that had received state dollars in the past – items like Boys and Girls Club, Fathers and Families, Spoleto, SEWE, etc., did not receive funding in the House budget. I am hopeful that when a new economic projection is given for summer spending we will be allowed to fund some of those projects; but for now the bill heads to conference committee where the final numbers will be hammered out.
Also this week: The Judiciary Committee voted to ban a device that turns liquor into a breathable vapor of oxygen and alcohol, which several other states have also banned; the House essentially killed a proposal that would allow retail store liquor sales on Election Day.
Thank you for the privilege of serving you in Columbia.
